Roxi Rules

The Yearly Review...

Okay so for as productive and useful I have found myself being as I'm in the office from 8 a.m. - 5 p.m. I still have had ample stare-at-the-walls-of-your-office-time-and-contemplate-your-life-up-to-this-point time. So this is going to be a retrospective post. I'm finally settling into the routine of my day and I think I'm at quite the crossroads in my college/life experience so lets see how far I've come just in the last 9 months...

Right so lets start with last summer : I took physics so that studying abroad would fit into my pre-med plans and volunteered at the Texas Children's Hospital. In all honestly summer school was kind of hard for me, not because the class was absurdly challenging (then again after Orgo this year most things do tend to pale in compariston!) but because after a long year of studying in school all I really wanted was a mental break but I had to force myself to work and focus because even though that class didn't feel all that important it would still go into my Med school application. BAH! So what'd I l earn from that experience? Don't underestimate summer school. Yes, most people do do better in the classes they take over summer school because they can focus on one thing at a time, but I'd also consider the psychological consequences when deciding if I ever wanted to do it again: like possibly burning out while you're taking that class after a hard year of studying or maybe having lots of other "summertime" distractions like friends who are just hanging out that'll keep you from doing your best.

So then my epic journey back to Hopkins! I can't believe Daniel and I drove 24 hours to Pittsburgh, down to DC then up to Boston to pick up Camilla and chill at my grandparent's house before finally moving into my new dorm, McCoy 405A baby! I'm absolutely one of those people who hates the first day of school and basically starting new things because I don't like not being in control and knowing everything about anything thats going on around me but I must say I had so much fun at the beginning of sophomore year. It was great being back on campus and being back to being a college kid (sorry mom and dad!) but then transitioning into having my own kitchen and our own bathroom and cooking dinners with my suitmates and just seeing everybody from freshman year and hearing about the cool and amazing things they'd done - I love how Hopkins kids can always provide you with some craaaaaaazy story about the incredible places they've been or out of control stuff they've been researching.

And then, all hell broke loose. Biochemistry and Organic Chemistry I started kicking my butt and the 17 hours of classes I was taking got majorly overwhelming. ANOTHER thing I learnt this year: don't let anyone tell you you can't have a social life and still be pre-med. Sure, my life at times was a nightmare and I spent way more than my fair share at the libaray working, but that didn't mean I couldn't do the extracurriculars that keep me sane. I still played for the band and got to go see Wynton Marsalis and one of my FAVOURITE bands of all time, The Blow. Maybe it means working that hard during the week after classes when really all you want to do is veg out and watch a season of Scrubs or something. All this year even though I was taking tons of demanding science classes I made it a priority to schedule in fun-for-roxi time, and I'm glad I did or I might have gone absolutely batty!

Oh I totally forgot about this post, I really wanted to do little biographies on lots of my friends but for some reason stopped at three...but here were the first Meet-Roxi's-Friends focus people.

Then came that point in the semester where the germs floating around my dorm usually getting the best of me and I got sick and gave a what-not-to-do evaluation of Health and Wellness on campus. Haha looking over that it's pretty amusing, if for nothing else because I sound like a mother hen...man I'm a loser.

Halloween this year, however, was a ton of fun. I went down to Fell's Point with my friends and it was relaly fun. Maybe it's just me because I love getting off campus, for whatever reasons, but there were tons of college aged people from all the surrounding schools and some of the costumes were great. I probably wouldn't suggest going for the weak of heart or if you don't like large somewhat belligerent crowds maybe it's not the scene for you, but it's really festive and going with a bunch of friends safety isn't really an issue if you're smart and don't go wandering off by yourself.

Basically as far as I'm concerned a cardinal rule for living in Baltimore is to not be stupid and just use your common sense. I would never go wandering around the shadier parts of town by myself or even with a couple friends. Don't drink things you've taken your eyes off of, take care of your friends and always have one person you're looking out for and who is looking out for you - yeah the buddy system seems archaic but I can't tell you how many parties I've left to help a friend get home...it's just the right thing to do people.

Daniel's birthday was unfortunately on a Monday this year, but I still baked him cupcakes and we watched Mulan. I don't care what they say there is NO wrong age to watch a Disney movie. Personally I'm a die hard Lion King and Alladin fan...those are probably two of my favourite movies of all time actually...

My fall finals period was really intense, well, I don't really have the right words however I did have a post that was a pretty dead on insight into my psyche at the time so I'm just going to let that speak for me: Roxi losing her mind. 

And then all of a sudden the semester had flown by and I couldn't believe a) it was over or b) I'd actually survived. This year I didn't go home for Thanksgiving, so when I went home for Christmas I think having been gone so long made me appreciate going back. I wasn't there for long though, I think I had a 10 day break and then it was back to Baltimore to start Wilderness First Responder (WFR) training over Intersession and on my weekends off from that intense, 80-hour course, I made a weekend trip out to Pittsburgh to visit my friend Ted.

Wow what can I say about WFR? I don't think it's for everyone, first of all it's a huge commitment to be there the whole time absorbing information, it really requires you to be on your A game...but it is my humble opinion that any pre-med student should take some kind of first responder/EMT type course. I learnt so much from just those two weeks that I've been able to carry into my later later experiences with medical care and emergency type situations. And on top of that it was just downright fun. In the grand scheme of my Hopkins experiences the time I spent in WFR class with the other OP-leaders is at the top of my list. The night scenario where they took us out to the woods about 30 minutes north of campus and we had a scenario where we had to "build a fire" and construct shelter for our wounded patient...I'm pretty sure I thought I was going to lose a toe I was so cold that night but I wouldn't trade it for anything.

WFR didn't take up all of my intersession though, I finally made it out to Washington D.C. to see all the monuments and such and I saw my suitemate in a fencing competition (which was really cool but now I'm a little scared to get on her bad side!) And I saw the Sirens perform  and made a little movie with one of my really good friend's solos (Erin has one of the most amazing voices and stage presences! I was 100% blown away).

Looking back now, Spring semester started at a run and even though at the time it didn't seem like it, now I can't believe how fast it passed. When spring semester starts, since we have such a late start because of Intersession, before you know it it's Valentine's Day and by that time you're already studying for your first round of Mid terms. I guess the fact that I was busy with Cell Biology, Orgo II and working in a research lab helped make the time fly, but my goodness I don't know where the time went.

I guess with all the confessions I made on my Favourites post it's time I made another confession: I hated my lab when I first started in it. Like I said earlier, I'm the kind of person that doesn't like to be "in the dark" I guess you would say and it bugs me to have to be perpetually asking basic questions and the whole catching up process. But on top of that my post-doc and I had a huge language barrier...it wasn't anyone's fault, I mean I can't imagine just coming to this country from China and never having had to speak English before and all of a sudden needing to communicate in this exceedingly complex language. At first I felt bad because I thought she thought I was dumb and absolutely incompetent...really I just didn't know how to ask the right questions and she didn't have the vocabulary built up to answer or explain things to the level I wanted/needed.

But it did get better, slowly but surely. I learnt so much this semester about dealing with other people and learning how to effectively communicate, skills I would never have thought I would learn in the lab of all places. I guess that's what I'm trying to get at through all my belly-aching. Hopkins has all these amazing resources that students here can tap into if you and even if you find out that lab work and research really aren't for you (or insert any of a myriad of educational opportunities people get involved in) they are never truly negative experiences. Camilla will attest to this - I had a really rough time when I started feeling inadequate and I just couldn't imagine it would get better and I'd ever been a good researcher and there were days I'd been in the lab just to find out a dye had destroyed my last 6 hours worth of PCRs and gels and I just wanted to get up and quit, but I didn't and now every day I got into my lab I'm glad I stuck with it, because now I love what I do, even pulling the testes out of flies (which at first really creeped me out).

Anyway next thing I knew it was the week before Spring Break and I took my first trip to New York which was just so much fun and the city was great, although I don't know that I'd ever want to be there a very long time, it's a little TOO big and flashy for me...but I still loved the subways! Spring Break brought with it more traveling to new and exotic locals. I'd never been to Canada before so we went up to Buffalo, New York for "THE Original Buffalo Wings" and then up to Niagra Falls and Toronto. Then, I'm still not sure what compelled me to do do this, but we drove down to Austin to see Richard Dawkins speak at UT then over to Houston to visit our families for a day then back to Baltimore. Lots of driving but I got to see A LOT of the country, which I guess was good we did it then now that gas is going over $4 a gallon!

Ahh and the much anticipated Hopkins CRIBs! post. I love making that post every year! And now that I'm getting somewhat better with Windows Movie Maker it's fun to ad little blurbs at the bottom...I'm a huge fan of comic relief.

And then, I took a chance on a blog and it really payed off, the No Joke blog. So here's what I didn't preface that post with: I had probably one of the most trying, difficult weeks of my life before I wrote that blog. I think that was the first time at Hopkins where I got through a bunch of tests and papers and whatever I had to do and just thought to myself, is this really worth it? I was burnt out, tired, cranky...all I wanted to do was go home or go to a community college somewhere and be done with fighting the curve and studying until all hours of the night. I was frustrated by the energy I had exerted and not knowing if those tests had gone well or not while I knew that there were people out there cruising through school, and some of them go to Hopkins.

I don't know if I'm smart or not, but I DO know that I'm a really hard worker. That's just how I get through life, if I'm not inherently good at something I work at it, and work and work some more. There are somethings that just don't come easily to me, and I recognize them and chug away (like Chemistry and Orgo)...but that's just my personal philosophy. Anyway I was frustrated there are people at Hopkins, and everywhere really, who put in a quarter of the time I put in, don't do well, and complain...which aggravates to no end. Or maybe I'm just easily excitable...I'll ponder that Monday at work.

So with Orgo and Cell Bio winding down it was Spring Fair and my birthday! I'm just going to go ahead and say Spring Fair is one of my favourite Hopkins events. I love that the community comes out and it's one of the only instances where Hopkins students and people from all around are part of our campus community and we have stuff for kids and stores and a beer garden...it's just fun and this year the weather was beautiful and it didn't rain out the bands on the beach so there was live music most o the weekend.

Which brings me to, well, the present . School is over and I have somehow found myself following my dream: of going into Aerospace Medicine. I'm interning at NASA (something I've always wanted to do) and every day I'm learning more about not only the physiological responses to micro gravity but just about medicine in general and what it means to be a doctor. I couldn't be happier...how cool is it that I'm getting paid to learn how to read electrocardiograms and research incidences of cardiovascular disease in astronauts? Sometimes I think it should be ME paying someone to get to do this, but don't tell my boss it's nice not being a broke college student and to be off the Ramen diet!

Every day I meet some new Flight Surgeon or an Astronaut or some guy that worked on the Gemini and Appolo missions and it's been amazing hearing their stories and all the projects they've been involved with. As far as I'm concerned, I hope the Constellation projects (lunar exploration and maybe a manned expedition to Mars) will serve as motivation for my generation to get excited about the space program.

Or even if not the space program, just science. It's unfortunate but having come from a public school education I feel like I can definitively say that the sciences get stigmatized and I know, for example, some people I went to school with just got it in their heads from an early age that you have to be a genius to be a scientist or there are people who are "too dumb" to even like science, so maybe my generation can change how science is portrayed to the next generation...

Allright enough of that! I think that's enough of contemplative-Roxi for now.

End of the Year, it All Happened So Fast!

Wow, so today I sat down to write this blog and though I should check and see where I left off … oh my oh my I have a lot to catch the world up on so lets start from the begining.

So after Spring Fair came finals. Incase my infrequent blogs didn’t give it away, this last semester was my toughest semester yet. In hind sight maybe I should have listened to all my advisors and almost every upperclassman I talked to and taken Organic Chemistry and Cell Biology separately. I had to sacrifice some of my weekend social life to be able to keep my grades up in those classes (those HORRIBLY important pre-med classes…gag). But now that it’s all said and done, I couldn’t be happier with my grades and, you know what this means? I am officially done with all my pre-requisites and need to start studying for my MCATs. Scary. Oh so scary.

This also means that I get to spend some quality time with my Latin American Studies major and start preparing for studying abroad, next spring, in Santiago, Chile!

Currently I’m back at home in Houston. Take it from me, when my Dining Dollars ran out and I started scooping out free BBQs and figuring out ways to jazz up Ramen some real creativity came out. Nothing makes you appreciate a home cooked meal like my finals diet: turkey on wheat.

Getting home was something of an adventure. I’m not sure whose brilliant idea this was (but I will take credit because it was pretty darn good!) but we decided that instead of driving 24 hours straight to get home we’d make a bonafide road trip out of it. 2 of my friends from Texas flew up after Daniel and I finished finals and a friend who goes to U-Pitt drove down and the lot of us drove south in our two cars. We stopped for 2 nights in Myrtle Beach which was amazing!

One of my friends booked an RV camp-site type place and we pitched a tent and set up shop about 30 feet from the beach. All in all it was a great time, we even got to see a biker rally, there were thousands of bikers and apparently all they do is ride up and down the major street. Who would have known, especially with gas prices the way they are.

Anyway now I’m back home and tomorrow I start my internship in Aerospace Medicine with NASA and last week I took bartending school so on the weekends I can work at a club downtown and save up some money for study abroad/med school.

And may I say! I never thought I would say it but thank goodness I took Orgo! I finished bartending school in 3 ½ days and I couldn’t have done it if I hadn’t learned mad studying skillz from a year of Organic Chemistry. 150 drink recipes in 3 days was absolutely no walk in the park but man if I hadn’t learned how to memorize reaction sequences in the order they happen who KNOWS what order I’d be making these drinks and with all kinds of wrong ingredients!

So my academic life has helped me out in my real world life and I couldn’t be happier. I could be working or going out on the weekends…so might as well combine the two right?

In other news graduation happened in the last month at the Johns Hopkins University and it has claimed three of my favourite people in the world.

First off, I’d like to say bye to Michelle Brown. She’s absolutely an inspiration and I consider it an honor to have been able to not only meet her but spend time with her and get to know her. Omg is there anything that girl can’t do? Heck I thought I was being adventurous going with a major outside of the sciences and still being pre-med but she doesn’t just go above and beyond, she exceeds at everything she does! She majored in Neuroscience (one of this campus’ hardest majors) but that wasn’t enough for her, she had to add performance and music in there too! I can’t even count the number of times I turned around in the last 2 years of band wondering who the beautiful French horn player was and well, guess who it was! One of my farourite musical moments was when Michelle played her Defying Gravity solo at the very end of Wicked in this spring’s concert. It was just beautiful, so thank you Michelle for being an amazing musician!

Another thing that I admire about Michelle is that she is one of the hardest workers I’ve ever met. She is dedicated to her research and expanding herself as a scientist, the times I’ve studied with her even when I thought I knew my stuff cold she just somehow always knows the important questions to ask that will take your understanding that much farther, to the next level.

Plus good lord she’s not afraid of anything! Before I came to Hopkins I always just assumed: Ok, you’re going to go to undergraduate school then straight to medical school, bam bam bam! But she’s a pre-med and she’s working for a bit before medical school and, let me say, she has an AMAZING job out in San Francisco PLUS she’s this year’s Young Trustee…Michelle I know you’re going to absolutely kick butt at everything you ever do and I can’t wait for you to come back and I want to hear all about when and where you’re saving the world!

Then there’s Ned. We met randomly before the first Biochemistry exam fall semester and he helped get me through every exam in that class plus all 4 Cell Bio exams. What can I say about Ned there really aren’t any words. He is one of the most outrageous people I’ve ever met and he’s so much fun! An English pre-med?! Way cool! But on top of that, that boy knows everything! He knows anything there is to know about Hopkins and is going to do crazy things, real world watch out!

Finally there’s Phil…I don’t think he knows this but he is most certainly one of my inspirations. I didn’t read many of these blogs before I got here but Phil’s is one that I not only read, but continue to read. He has so much to say and so much great advice to offer! Again he’s amazing because I feel like he knows so much about so many things, he always amazes me with his knowledge and how informed he is. Plus I’m so glad he’s a Public Health Major! Hearing him talk about taking classes at the Bloomberg school of Public Health made me so excited about my senior year so Phil, thank you for helping me get through my first two years and I know you’re going to be amazing at what you do.

So I think I should probably go to bed…I have to report to NASA at 7am. This internship is really a dream come true, 2 years ago I knew I wanted to be pre med and work at NASA and study abroad but oh my god I can’t believe I’m 50% through with college and I’m making my dreams come true! My life is happening and I couldn’t be happier! With that being said, Roxi out and I’ll be back with hopefully GREAT stories about life in the real, working world!

The Big Bang: i.e. Spring Fair

So finally the sun has come out and the weather has warmed up and at Hopkins that means only one thing: Spring Fair and my birthday :)

So maybe I wasn't as excited about this birthday as I was about 16 (driving!) and 18 (no more juvenile record...not that I had one :-/)...but hey it's been a pretty good couple of decades, and according to Michelle, she learnt at the "Body World" exhibit that after 19 the brain stops growing and teenagers stop being moody and socially awkward, so all signs point to I'm going to be mad normal from here on out! (Yea right!)

Anyway my birthday was great. Sam and Daniel made beef fajitas for dinner and I spent the afternoon out on the Beach chilling and enjoying the sunshine. I also had a lab meeting, here is a picture of people I work with, they're just great, but I'll talk more about them in a later blog :).

Then this last weekend was Spring Fair. Basically I can't say enough about Spring Fair, it's just a great weekend to be a Hopkins student or even just a member of the Hopkins/Charles Village/Baltimore community. Even if you're not over 21 and can't get into the Beer Garden outside of the President's house (they set up a bunch of stands that sell beer on the front lawn of the President's House - right by the the Hopkins Club) there is plenty to do.

For students there are stands that sell little homemade goods and tons of food, everything from funnel cake to Mediterranean, Thai to deep fried cheesecake, chicken on a stick to frozen lemonade...except basically everyone I know has been rolling around this week in the aftermath of all the fatty foods we all consumed. Also, all afternoon Friday, most of the day Sunday and part of Sunday there are live bands out on the Beach.

Spring Fair also hosts a band every year. This year one of my favourite bands ever: Real Big Fish came and they were absolutely brilliant. I called my little brother to rub in his face I was at a concert of our favourite high school bands and now, I'm not going to lie, I kind of have a weird urge to just drop out of school and be a bass trombonist in a band (just don't tell my dad he'd kill me!)...also I don't play bass trombone, but these are all minor details I figure I could work out :).

However, one of the things that struck me more this year than last year was what a community event it is. The university brings in a small amusement park: ferris wheel, big swing, arcade games, etc. between Krieger and the Mattin Center and when I went to check it out there were tons of kids and their parents outside having fun. There is also a corner of the Freshmen Quad over by Homewood House where people had a moon walk and blow up balloon animals and bubbles and Disney music for small children.

I'm not criticizing Hopkins because this campus does a lot for the community between university efforst and the countless hours of volunteering done by our students through the Office of Social Concern, but most of those effots happen off campus. You barely ever see families and children on campus and sometimes it feels like Hopkins is an island, and there's a moat or something that keeps the community off campus.

HOWEVER Spring Fair weekend is the exception. For 3 great days in the year people of all walks and ages come onto campus to celebrate the weather. People my grandparent's ages and teens from local middle and high schools sit around on the tables they set up on the Freshman Quad eating and enjoying the music. Young families and recent alumni come back and current students take a weekend off of working, gearing up for the final crunch before the end of the semester by taking a much deserved sanity break. The Hopkins campus actually looks like other campuses with people everywhere to be seen and everything from frisbee to football (I even saw the lacrosse team construct a skate ramp out of tables unused tables!) being played on the beach.

Oh gosh now I'm getting nostalgic and I have a lot of work ahead of me! Can't give up now, I have 2 weeks exactly until I'm done with my last final - who can believe its so soon?! - so I'm going to crank down on my Cell Bio and Orgo studying...2 weeks till I'm done with my pre-med classes! We'll see how I feel about that when its all said and done.

 

     

No Joke...to the Class of 2012

DISCLAIMER: To all of my faithful blog readers (especially Sam’s mom I know you noticed the original blog was gone – and by the way, I love that you read this and keep up with Sam and I!) who read my original post that was removed a couple days ago, I just want you to know that its removal was not censorship on anyone’s part but my own. As you’ll see, I had a rough couple of weeks and realized that the message I wanted to get out was maybe a little more raw than I intended it to be. This is my original post, with a couple of tweaks. It’s just that I wanted to make sure that what I wanted to get across didn’t come out like whining or complaining, so here goes:

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

So where have I been the last two weeks? I know, I know, I'm way overdue in catching up my blog with what's going on in my life and what's going on at Hopkins, but I have a legitimate excuse: there hasn't been anything exciting going on, unless you count the library. I'm finally out of a 2 week crazy-stretch and have returned to my regularly scheduled life. An Orgo II midterm (a nasty, drooling monster of a test: carbonyl chemistry), an Orgo Lab report, a 10 page Sociology of Latin America paper, and studying for a Cell Bio exam took over my life...whew am I glad that’s over!

So as I was thinking about what I would write about in this blog, a few things came to mind:

1. Homecoming was this weekend and is one of the best weekends to be a student at Hopkins. The weather is almost always gorgeous, our cherry blossoms are blooming, students are coming out of their dorms and chilling on the beach, and some association or another brings out a live band. The lacrosse game is always PACKED and there are alumni all over the place from years and years ago. (This year was the 20 year reunion for the class of 1988 – I can’t even begin to explain how odd it was to have people walking around who graduated from here the year I was born!) Our team played absolutely brilliantly and there's nothing better than having 4,000 cheering fans go wild when we win...so yea, homecoming was great.
2. This weekend I took a break from my studies and took my post doc, another undergraduate who works with me in my lab, and a friend of his down to DC to check out the Cherry Blossom Festival. Unfortunately a wind storm the night before knocked off most of the blossoms but we still got to show her around the monuments and had lunch on the steps in front of the Lincoln Memorial (she just came to the states from China so it was interesting hearing some of her preconceived notions about American history.
3. Or there is the fact that my friends and I have finally found a fantastic row house to live in next year and I am SO excited about signing a lease and starting on the next part of this journey towards being an adult. Maybe it's just me, I don't know if other people get this excited about signing a lease, but even though I'm living with 4 other people it still feels like growing up. Hmm, I'll have to ponder more on this train of thought.

ANYWAY none of these sounded right. So I started composing a new blog in my head. It occurred to me the other day that I don’t think I seriously address the academic sphere here at Hopkins nearly enough in my blog. I haven’t figured out why that is, maybe because I don’t want to sound like I’m whining, or maybe because studying is studying, no matter where you are so I actively focus on my experiences outside of academia…

Whatever the reasons, in my blog, and to an extent all over Hopkins Interactive, we focus on the fun stuff: our extra curriculars, our exploits with our friends, the unique experiences that we’re going to carry with us the rest of our lives and the moments that are actively defining us. But I don't think academics gets properly addressed at times and I think there is a message that needs to go out:

Hopkins is NO JOKE.

Yes, it is doable. Competition isn't cut throat like some people like to stereotype it as, but it is still stiff. No matter if you're Arts and Sciences or Engineering, Writing Seminars or Biology. I don't care if you're a BME or a history major, these professors and your fellow classmates aren't messing around, they’re not here to waste their time or your time.

Sometimes I’m guilty of falling into the trap of thinking that because I'm pre-med for some reason I have it harder than other students: harder than humanities majors or my friends getting Psychology degrees, and I have to step back and remember: we're all working our butts off.

Unfortunately, just because you blew through high school and were top of your class without batting an eyelash doesn't mean it's going to be like that forever. Hopkins is a bucket of ice cold water for lots of the students that come here. I know a few people who actually thought their first years were easy, but this year, as sophomores, they're finally hitting upper level classes and they're finally having to work. Lets just say it's not a pretty sight: realizing that you can't coast through life is not a nice transition to watch someone going though, take my word for it.

Personally, high school for me was fantastically easy. In the entirety of my high school education I can’t remember many instances when I felt truly challenged, or when I legitimately thought I couldn’t do something. When I got to Hopkins I was used to being the best in my class at everything, and I was used to it school being really easy. I would have died if I had seen a B on my report card in high school, and I could probably count to you the number of tests I didn’t set the curve for in high school. I don’t say that to brag, I just think that mind set is the norm amongst students here. Especially people who went to public school like me. If you’ve never been challenged or had to study, it’s going to be a rough transition.

In all honesty one of the worst classes I’ve taken at Hopkins was Intro to Chemistry. There were a bunch of students in my class who had taken the course before they got to Hopkins. I’d only ever taken a watered down “pre-AP” class my sophomore year of high school. For them, the whole class was a refresher, but I had to work my butt off to learn it from scratch and just try to keep up with the average. I’ve probably never felt as awful about myself as my first semester here. I questioned my intelligence daily because I wasn’t used to being “average” and not be at the top of my class. No matter how hard I worked, at the end of the day I just couldn’t do as well as the people who were in there for round two, but at the time I didn’t realize it was okay.

On the bright side, it does/did get better. Unfortunately, you’ll hear about people who use their covered grades to slack off first semester, but for those of us that used it to learn how to study and use our time efficiently I’m gonna go ahead and say it’s paid off. This year in Orgo and Biochem the playing field is even and I’m scoring where I want to. But be warned, it takes a heck of a lot of work to be at the top of a Hopkins curve, doesn’t matter what class.

Sure, we've got a party scene and it is possible to go out every night…but your odds of succeeding if your plan is to party every night? = Slim to none. I actually know a person who is doing just that: partying almost every night and being a mess half the week. Where is he now? In some serious academic hot water and can’t seem to help himself and get back on track. The saddest part is that it is chasing his friends away. We just want the best for him, but he’s sabotaging his future here. He worked hard to get in here, and if he doesn’t get his grades up it could all get taken away – talk about devastating.

I'd dare you to find one student here who legitimately does not care about the rest of their life and would be happy in some menial, non-rewarding job the rest of their lives. You'd be pretty hard pressed. Everyone I know has these amazing dreams and aspirations, they want to do something with their lives and those people are taking advantage of the opportunity Hopkins affords you to get a one up as you enter the real world. Heck, if nothing else, this degree means you can hack it and you've got drive.

If you don't want to work and if you're not interested in growing intellectually or realizing a dream I'm pretty sure you're wasting your time and money coming here. You've got to be willing to do the work and lots of it, there's just no way around it. You can’t coast by, and I would go so far as to say that if you’re just coasting by at Hopkins you’re missing out.

For example, one of the things I’m most grateful for is how tough Biochemistry was last semester. The depth of understanding we were expected to master for that class encompassed an incredible amount of material and detail and it took countless hours of studying to earn my grade, but boy am I glad I did. This semester I’m researching in a lab in the Biology department and almost daily I’m tested on my understanding of the principles I learnt in the classroom. I guess what I’m trying to say is that even in your toughest subjects here, where it seems like they’re asking far too much from you, I have faith that someday you’ll be glad they did. If you take advantage of learning at the level that is expected of you at this university you’ll be pretty well informed.

But please don't get me wrong, it's not always hard times. Though everyone around has some story or another about their favorite Hopkins experience and what they love about being a student here, at the same time we've all got our stories about the weeks we felt like we were buried in assignments and thought we would never make it through. In all honesty, there have been moments where I’ve thought that maybe I should have gone to my state school and maybe I’m not smart enough to be a pre-med. Those days are hard to get through, but thanks to those hard times, I feel myself becoming more and more sure that I actually am on the right path.

I love my life right now, even the stress and the grey hairs I’m getting from taking too many upper-level science classes at the same time. I love that when I’m feeling my worst and feel like if I fail this Orgo test I should start practicing, “Would you like fries with that?” my friends can make me feel better because they know what I’m going through and all of us have been there at one point or another. I love that everyone dreams big and when you’re here it’s like the world is your oyster and by gosh if I want to do so-and-so with my life I’m going to do it. Heck you can even change your mind and major and Hopkins has so many amazing programs in so many diverse fields you’ll still get a great education (did you know we have one of the top Classics programs in the nation?) I love that I feel like I’m growing in to a better person than I was before I got here, and I’m pretty sure this school has a lot to do with it.

One of my favourite shirts that people wear around campus is the "Hopkins: Only the Strong Survive" shirt (I think it's for this graduating class, but don't quote me on that I could be wrong). At any rate that's maybe one of the truest statements I've heard about this university. You think you've got what it takes? Great. Ready to get your butt kicked, pick yourself up, and start over? Excellent. Do you want to do something really meaningful with your life and you won't let anything get in your way? Perfect: I'll see you next year Class of 2012.

Hopkins CRIBS: McCoy Hall

Yes, that's right it's CRIBS! Acceptance letters went out today and let me just take this opportunity to send a HUGE congratulations to the regular decision acceptees of the class of 2012!. I'm going to give you a sneak peak into what your living situation could be if you come here your sophomore year.

So I'm currently living in McCoy Hall. We're across N. Charles St. from the library and Wolman, a freshman dorm, is right next door. Suites in this building generally have a kitchen, a bathroom, and either 2 double bedrooms or 2 singles and a double. I live in 2 doubles so I have my amazing roommate, Camilla, and Samantha and Tashi - my best friends from my floor freshman year in AMR II.

First, check out my video: we had a lot of fun making this, hope you enjoy it too!

Now the written tour! When you first walk in we have a hallway which we have decorated with christmas lights and advertisements of good looking gentlemen we've found in magazines. But have no fear, this is a democracy: we all have to vote a boy onto the wall.

The first room on the right is the bathroom. One of these pictures is of our amazing shower curtain, Camilla and I picked it out at the begining of the year and there are two matching floor rugs to go with it :) We have a relatively small bathroom for this building but we bought some storage to put our bathroom stuff (see video).

Then as you keep walking in you see our kitchen. Samantha and Mark were cooking when I took these pictures. We're having a big dinner party tonight: Chicken cabbbage fajitas and something else...southwest themed at any rate! We actually have 2 fridges: one came with the suite and it's the one Samantha is showing off here, and the other we rented from microfridges and it came with a little microwave (which we utilize very frequently I'll have you know.)

Moving on we have my room. Camilla and I have a Japanese theme going on and that explains the wall we use as a bookshelf and the banners up over both our desks and the bed. My desk has all  my essentials: computer, hard drive, tons of text books, and most importantly at the moment: Organic Chemistry. Then we have our bed and armoir. Normally double rooms come with two twin beds, I promise. Except in ours we pushed the beds together at the begining of the year and now it's like having a sleep over every night with your best friend. Kinda cool and I'm not going to lie, I'm a pretty short kid so having the two pushed together is the perfect length for me to curl up and be comfortable.

Finally we've got our window. We're on a pretty high floor so our windows have great views of campus and in Samantha and Tashi's room you can see a JHMI Shuttle stop and al the way down St. Paul street to the Inner Harbour. For anyone who saw my crib last year we had the grotto under my bed. Well the good news is it came with us this year! Now it sits under a window and it's usually where people sit when they come over for dinner or to study or just chat, what have you.

Well that's my room in a nutshell. As much as I loved AMR II last year, I love my suite maybe a weeeeee bit more this year. Having a kitchen has been amazing: I love cooking my own meals and I'm a pretty clean person, as are the people I'm living with, so we keep the bathroom clean and dishes in the kitchen done etc.

Spring Break

SO here's the thing...there are only a grand total of ~6 weeks left of Spring some absolutely refuse to believe it. Spring semester always flies by but once Spring Break is over it just goes so fast!

And that's where I find myself.

Spring break was absolutely phenomenal. Daniel and I decided to forgo going home and stayed in the north. After my cell bio test we packed up with another friend of ours, Cali, and hit the open road. First stop: Pittsburgh.

Happily for us, one of our best friends, Ted, goes to U Pitt so we went to stay at his amazing bachelor pad. And by amazing I mean its a huge dive and it's run down in a highly suspect neighborhood with a really creepy back alleyway you have to walk through to get from his car to the front door. Therefore we love it. It's small and smells, well, like run down building...but it's still fun to all cram into his apartment. It kinda makes us feel like mahybe we really are growing up and this is the first step (even if it is a baby step) toward real independence and being adults. So that night Ted took the Hopkins kids, and his girlfriend Julie, out to this place called the Overlook I believe, basically it's a mountainside across the river from the city that overlooks everything and we stopped for a photo op. I even taught myself how to use the night setting on my digital camera.

  After Pittsburgh we headed up to Niagra Falls and the border. We met a friend of Cali's at The Anchor Bar  in Buffalo, home to the buffalo wing, and TEd, Daniel, and Dan all manned up and ate a I don't even know how many chickens each. Somehow we convinced Cali's friend Dan to head across the border with us and we all got soaked looking at the falls and enjoyed being able to legally gamble in Canada. I'm happy to report a won a whole $3.50...but Daniel showed me up by winning $200 on roulette. How you win $200 on roulette without just being mad lucky I'll never fathom. Oh well. Johns Hopkins: $203.50, Canada: $0. 

Then we went up to Toronto. I've never been before but we found a hotel in the city and checked out an Irish bar and Grill and spent the night in the city. The next morning we didn't mean to but ended up on an epic journey across town which, as coincidence would have it, led us straight into a St. Patrick's day parade. We then checked out a park on the water (and had a snow ball war - and I say war because this was no wishy washy "fight") and headed back to the States.

A couple more days in Pittsburgh just hanging out with Ted and Julie and we found ourselves back in Baltimore...just hanging out and resting before the final stretch.

And now I'm in lab. Sometimes coming back to Hopkins is sureal - it's easy to forget that my lifestyle includes late nights at the library and days in class and working in lab after spending a week just chilling and seeing the country. Oh well! Lots of good stuff is coming up, namely:

• Spring Fair
• Acceptance letters for Regular Decision, Class of 2012 (everytime I say that I feel absurdly old, just had to throw that out there)
• My Birthday!
• Sailing starting back up
• Open Houses
• Moving off campus into our new home (5 friends and I are living in a row house next year)
• Summer + Internship

But okay must focus: here and now I've got a gel that needs some attention and orgo tests coming up, till then!

NYC shenanigans

So I just had maybe one of the best weekends since I got to Hopkins.

It started with a Friday dinner party (unfortunately after hours of strict library time) with JHU Rob and my friends Toshi and Ayano. I made rice, green beans, and an asian black bean chicken saute and we all just sat around eating for ... well a really long time.

Then came Saturday and our crazy road trip. In the car was Ian, Jonathan, Camilla and I and we were meeting our friend Jamil at his place in Brooklyn. We left Baltimore around 3:00 p.m.thinking it would take a couple hours ... oh no! Not with our navigation skills, or lack there of.

I'm pretty sure we were lost in Philly for an hour - we made it all the way to Temple University before yours truly took over and got us back to 95! Then there was the intense gas fill up (we wound up at a sketchy gas station where the pump didn't have an auto turn off when the tank was filled and gas overflowed out of the car...I've never seen anything like that before!

So we finally got to Jamil's around 9 p.m. (mostly because Jonathan decided to avoid the Jersey Turnpike and  take Route 1 north which, for the record, is a poor ... poor choice but I won't dwell) and I took my very first New York subway into Manhattan.

We went to "The Village" - I'm putting that in quotes because this was my first time in New York and that's just what they tell me so if I get anything egrigiously wrong please correct me! - and had dinner at the Olive Tree Cafe. After everything all the good things I'd heard about food in New York I was worried it wouldn't be as great as the hype but believe you me...it was fantastic! I had a babaganoush pita with some kind of greek salad and my friend had falafels, I'm salivating thinking about them!

Then we went next door and checked out a comedy club for a bit before heading over to another friend's home in Tribeca. He graduated last year and we were up to visit him and go to a party he was having for his roommate's birthday. The flat was amazing: they had a DJ and everything and there had to have been ~100 people there.

We ended up leaving his place around 5:30 a.m. but by that time figured we might as well wait for the sun to rise, so we grabbed bagels and headed to the South Street Sea Port (or Pier 17? I'm still a little iify on some of the names) and watched the sun rise behind the Brooklyn Bridge.

It was absolutely phenomenal, my friends schooled me on how to appreciate bridge architecture propperly and we huddled for warmth in the -2 C temperatures. Unfortunately we couldn't stay long. Cold + parking ticket if we got back after 8:30 = we had to run, but we got back in time to avoid the ticket and fell asleep around 8 a.m. Great night!, but since we all had work to finish up before this week started we left the city around 1 and came back to campus in time for me to hit the books/library and finish up an orgo lab, cell bio reading, and a sociology review.

So that's why you haven't heard from me in so long, I've been taking advantage of Baltimore's proximity to mad cool locals. Unfortunately I've got to run: class in an hour and I've got a little reading to catch up on. Till then!

OH! and I need to publish a retraction: in my February 6th blog about the superbowl I misspelt one of my friend's names. I wasn't chilling with "Kathy" ... her name is Kathryn so please excuse my gross misnomer. Forgive me Kathryn?

JHU_Roxi's FAVOURITES

Ah yes, life on the other side of an Orgo midterm really is sweeter. So its about time for some fun. This week, the bloggers of Hopkins Interactive decided to "change things up a bit" and bring back an old favourite: common blogs. So the idea behind our blogs is to give ya'll a glimpse into our lives at Hopkins, plus give you an idea of what might possibly lie in store for you, the prospective, as a Hopkins student. Normally, I just kinda rant about my life and what's going on, but today we're going "totally random"  similar to the Off-Topic Discussion Form from the message boards, I'm taking a well deserved break from Hopkins talk for a favourites blog.

Be warned: things are about to get REALLY random.

Who is your favourite author?: Kurt Vonnegut - I love all of his works ... Slaughterhouse 5 being one of my favourite books of all time.

What is your favourite website?: I don't actually do much web surfing other than the necessaries (email, facebook, etc.) but uhmm I'm pretty partial to my daily dose of bbc.com.

What is your favourite item in your bedroom?: The bed! It's mad comphy and I like to curl up with Mr. Leopard and watch movies (or just the weather).

What, in your opinion, has been the greatest invention of your time?: I'm pretty partial to wanting to know how you define "great" ... but I guess the technology I use most is my laptop. But really I kinda wish I was a caveman so I could claim the wheel or fire or something cool like that.

What is your favourite news source?: BBC World News. By a landslide. I'm just gonna throw this out there: Anderson Cooper is maybe one of my least favourite people ever.

What is your favourite movie series?: Star Wars IV-VI (Maybe not so much the news ones, sorry George Lucas).

What is your favourite time of day? Why?: Anytime there's sunlight ... I really can't just pick one. I love sunrise because everythings really calm and new, noon is great because it's the best time to just lie outdoors and watch the clouds or zone out and think, and sunset is always so beautiful and romantic if you're sitting on the beach or something.

What is your favourite one-hit wonder?: Eiffel 65's "Blue"...that song is just SO great :-D Although if you count Hanson's "MmmBop" I'll fess up to having loved them in 4th grade.

Which is your favourite person, living or dead, you'd like to have a cup of tea with?: I'd absolutely love to sit down with Chris McCandless (Into the Wild by John Krakaur has been one of my favourite books since middle school plus I recently got around to watching the movie that came out last year). Sure, his story ends in tradgedy, but for someone of our generation not to just say "I'm fed up with society" but to really follow their dreams, to live for themselves and really not answer to anyone...I can't put it into words but I think I'd like to be in the presence or someone like that.

What is your favourite quote?: Kurt Cobain, "I'd rather burn out than fade away." I usually don't remember quotes, it's just part of who I am, but lately this one has been on my mind, not in the dead rock god kind of way, but in the sense that I've got today so I better take advantage of it. Maybe it's another irrational phobia of mine but the last thing I want out of my life is to look back and see wasted opportunities, or a youth I didn't take advantage of.

Are you a dog person, cat person, or other? Why?: I'd say both actually. I've always wanted a dog, to go for walks with or one that'll sit with me, but I've got a cat at home, KiKi, and I absolutely love him and I think he loves me, despite his feigned indifference ;)

What is your favourite game?: I really miss good old fashioned hide-and-seek. I don't get to play nearly enough these days, but back in the day having mad hide-and-seek skills was clutch. And I'm small so I had a natural advantage :) These days I just play volleyball...or watch football/lacrosse.

Who is your favourite TV villain?: Yea, yea I'm lame I know but I don't watch all that much TV...House and Greys Anatomy don't really have "villains" so I guess Benjamin from House...but I actually really don't like him he creeps me out! Other than that Chuck from Gossip Girls would have to be my favourite misunderstood villain (I actually think he's not that bad - I mean really you can't chose who you love :-/)

Where is the one place in the world you would want to visit?: Just as a trip I'd love to do a Motorcycle Diaries style trip around the southern tip of South America, check out Las Pampas and Buenos Aires of Argentina and make my way up the Pacific Coast of Chile...

What is your favourite guilty pleasure?: I like to pretend I'm a bad-ass and walk around campus listening to Incubus' "Circles"...you know, the one with the amazing intro like I'm the main character in some kind of action adventure...don't tell though, people will probably start giving me funny looks if they walk past me and see me with my ipod on :-P

And to finish this survey of wonderful randomness, we're stealing questions used at the end of every broadcast of Into the Actor's Studio. James Lipton, the host, always finishes each interview with  a questionnaire invented by the great Bernard Pebo...here goes:

- What is your favourite word?: Extemporaneous (I'm trying to become one of those people that can get straight to the point, so I have to remind myself to cut out the "extemporaneous" riff raff out)

- What is your least favourite word?: Feelings...

- What turns you on (creatively, spiritually or emotionally)?: In all honesty I just have to put myself in the right mood. I chose something to focus on: the weather or something someone said or just remembering all the positive stuff in my life.

- What turns you off?: When there's drama or someone's being unnecessarily dramatic.

- What noise or sound do you love?: Music...really any kind of music.

- What noise or sound do you hate?: I HATE when people sing off pitch but think they're amazing. If you're being funny it's great but American Idol style business kills me. OH...and I think the worst feeling in the WORLD is when I hear a band that I like playing live and they have no sense of pitch or are just horribly off...it kills me. My friends call me a music snob. I like to think that I demand musicianship.

- What profession would you like to attempt?: I would love to be a travel magazine free lance photographer (or something of the sort). I don't actually do much photography, but I'd love to learn! And I can't think of anything cooler than seeing the world, every nook and cranny, and just getting to commune with nature and people of all walks of life.

- What profession would you absolutely not like to attempt?: I could never in a million years be a lawyer. Like, a trial lawyer. It's another one of my irrational phobias, but I don't know what I'd do if I learnt my client was guilty and still had to defend them.

- Finally, if Heaven exists, what would you like to hear God say when you arrive at the Pearly Gates?: Are you ready to Rock and Roll!?!?! (Really I have no idea, I didn't know I'd get a personal greeting, that's pretty cool).

To comment or debate any of my answers, or just to share your views and continue the discussion with me check out my personal message board thread.

NOW It's time for me to head out to lab :) M&T lacrosse game this weekend, GO BLUE JAYS!

Down with the weather...

Well ... on the upside at least I'm halfway through midterms! Today was my first Cell Bio exam and Thursday I had a Latin American Studies quiz. Jack studied with us last night and basically everytime we looked up something on-line we also checked the weather to see if we'd get a snow day and postpone the test.

No such luck.

In other news, I seem to have caught whatever germs are floating around my dorm, which meant I've been flu-like for days and couldn't go on my Winter Retreat with Outdoor Pursuits this weekend.

I'm not a happy camper (literally I bought a sleeping bag and under armour and everything). :-(

So today I've just slept for the last 9 hours then Daniel and I made soup and watched a movie - apparently I've gotten him sick as well, aren't I a great friend? We'll see how I feel tomorrow, it's the first lacrosse game of the season and there's a comedy show around campus somewhere ... therefore my plan is to sleep now and enjoy my weekend later before I have to buckle down again studying for Orgo this Thursday.

Wish me luck ... I'm about to become best friends with my bottle of Nyquil.

P.S - thoughts on the new blog layout? I figured it was time for a change :)

Why, It's Thursday Again...

Not to be anti-Valentines day person, but I'm pretty sure I'm a proponent of the celebrate the people you love every single day school of thought. That being said, presents 365 days a year would be fantastic.

However, life at Hopkins doesn't stop because Hallmark needed a holiday in February! Life goes on, though I will admit it is much sweeter (literally, there were so many baked goods all over campus...). I've been mad busy all week, but it's been fantastic.

Working in a real research lab has been tons of work but so far I absolutely adore it. Today I was there for 7 hours, but I'm starting to really understand what my part of the research project entails and how my part fits into the big picture. I'm the bottom of the food chain, but somebody's got to do it and by gosh if I have to be lab labor I'm going to be the BEST lab labor they've ever seen that side of the freshman quad. And no I don't quite know what that means but I was going for dramatic effect.

Also Outdoor Pursuits is back in business and sailing is just around the corner! Greg, Jack and I are working hard on getting new instructors to come out and expand the program to more graduate students and undergraduates to come out on a more regular basis. PLUS next weekend is our "Instructor Retreat" and I think we're going tubing and snow shoeing. Truth be told I've never really played out in the snow for long periods of time so this weekend I'm all about the wool sock.

In other news I shot a preliminary CRIBS video today so be on the lookout! Valentines day tacos and cupcakes are involved and, well, lots of interesting characters to say the least :)

Classes are going as well as can be hoped: I'm really excited about my research paper on Neoliberalism in Chile and its effects on public health (the professor for that class is so cool she knows I'm a Public Health major and picked a topic that goes with my fields of study). Unfortunately our first Orgo midterm is rapidly approaching, but the mindset this semester is to OWN orgo...or at leas that's what Michelle and I keep telling ourselves. NMR spectroscopy problems are actually pretty cool, if you like problem solving this stuff is actually fun (but don't tell anyone I said that!). 

Tomorrow the JHU Red Cross Club is hosting a Blood Drive on Campus and Daniel's fraternity brothers are volunteering handing out drinks. However, I'm happy to report that Daniel will be giving blood with me: we wagered a cupcake that I can donate my blood faster than he can. Yea, maybe we have an unhealthy relationship but I think more people are getting in on this competition, winner takes all!, so at least we're raising blood for the Red Cross!

On that note I'm going to hydrate and hit the sack. I've got to squeeze my pillow a couple hundred times before I got to bed to get my veins ready ;) Game face? On.